We reveal the top 50 entries for Round 9 Kept in the Dark – Night Photography
Svetlana Volkova from Riga in Latvia is the winner of round 9 Kept in the Dark (night photography), of APOY 2014. Svetlana will receive an Olympus OM-D E-M10 with a 14-42mm EZ Pancake zoom, a 45mm f/1.8 portrait lens, a 40-150mm zoom,
a 9mm fisheye lens, a macro adapter and a street case in which to carry it all. That’s a total retail price of £1,200.
The E-M10 has a 16.1-million-pixel, four thirds-sized CMOS sensor and a TruePic VII image-processing system. The 1.44-million-dot EVF displays a 100% field of view and has a 120fps refresh rate.
The 14-42mm EZ Pancake zoom lens is a slim and compact optic that is equivalent to a 28-84mm lens in the 35mm format. The 45mm f/1.8 portrait optic is ideal for low-light people shots without flash, while the 40-150mm zoom has high-speed AF and is optimised for movies and stills. The 9mm fisheye lens is ideal for capturing wideangle scenes.
Our second-placed winner is Venpeng Lu from Paris in France. Venpeng will receive an Olympus Pen E-PL5 camera plus a 14-42mm and 40-150mm twin-lens zoom kit worth £500. The E-PL5 offers serious image quality with its powerful 16.1-million-pixel sensor and a new OM-D component in the TruePic VI image processor. The camera has lightning-fast autofocus, a touch-sensitive LCD screen and full HD video.
John Robinson from Cambridgeshire takes third place in this round. He wins an Olympus Stylus SP-100EE Ultra Zoom camera, with an impressive 16-million-pixel sensor and 3in LCD screen. The camera includes a handy autofocus lock so you need never lose a shot due to fuzzy focusing. The camera features a 50x optical Ultra Zoom lens with a focal length ranging from 24mm to 1,200mm, and built-in Dot Sight to make it easier to focus on subjects.
Photo by Svetlana Volkova
1st Svetlana Volkova, Latvia 50pts
Canon EOS 5D, 135mm, 0.3sec at f/7.1, ISO 400
Night photography is perhaps one of the most challenging genres a photographer can attempt. There are a number of factors to consider, such as light, subject and the appropriate settings to shoot in such low-light conditions. Thankfully, we received a number of excellent entries and Svetlana’s image stood out from the rest due to its light, subject, colour and, above all, intriguing atmosphere. It’s a beautiful photograph and a more than worthy winner.
Photo by Wenpeng Lu
2nd Wenpeng Lu, France 49pts
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 35mm, 1/80sec at f/2.8, ISO 400
This image has so much going for it. The subject, a night market, is fascinating enough, but Wenpeng has succeeded in presenting it in such an engaging way that we had to put it in out top three. One of the key things about night photography is knowing how to treat the available light. Once the light is handled, the colour is the next thing to think about. How do the two complement each other? Wenpeng has got them both exactly right and has presented a perfect composition as well.
Photo by John Robinson
3rd John Robinson, Cambridgeshire 48pts
Fujifilm X-Pro1, 18-55mm, 1/8sec at f/3.6, ISO 2000
John tells us that this shot features preserved industrial steam locomotives at the Rocks by Rail Museum in Cottesmore, Rutland, on the night of 15 November 2014. By exposing for the smoke in the background, John has managed to capture these two silhouettes hard at work. It’s an image that looks almost like it could have been taken decades ago and, as a result, it is imbued with a beautiful atmosphere.
Top 50 entries for this round:
| 1 Svetlana Volkova 50pts 2 Wenpeng Lu 49pts 3 John Robinson 48pts 4 Gary Turner 47pts 5 Aaron Yeoman 46pts 6 Angela Nelson 45pts 7 Lucie Brooke 44pts 8 Mick Davis 43pts 9 Sergei Bogomyakov 42pts 10 Steve Gresty 41pts 11 Andrew Barton 40pts 12 Hayri Kodal 39pts 13 Steve Webb 38pts 14 Chris Wood 37pts 15 George Digalakis 36pts 16 Alland Dharmawan 35pts 17 Nicolas Casana 34pts 18 Satpal Singh 33pts 19 Mihail Kopychko 32pts 20 Adrian Sadlier 31pts 21 Richard Craze 30pts 22 Mark Cornick 29pts 23 Michael Marsh 28pts 24 Christian Wilkinson 27pts 25 Christophe Lemieux 26pts |
26 David Queenan 25pts 27 George Taylor 24pts 28 Suiyi Zhang 23pts 29 Dominic Byrne 22pts 30 Dusica Paripovic 21pts 31 Farid Sani 20pts 32 Dan Robbins 19pts 33 Csilla Szucs 18pts 34 Tristan Milner 17pts 35 Patryk Schastok 16pts 36 Will Ng 15pts 37 Steven Trolley 14pts 38 Laura Cope 13pts 39 Tobias Oggenfuss 12pts 40 Donald Lanstone 11pts 41 Marino Reljica Kostic 10pts 42 Kevin Lomax 9pts 43 Andy Rahardian Akbar 8pts 44 Arnel Castro 7pts 45 Richard Cooper 6pts 46 Mark Cresswell 5pts 47 Jake Bonnell 4pts 48 Sean Lynch 3pts 49 Ivan Galic 2pts 50 Anna Kadykova 1pt |
View the winning Images in the APOY 2014 Gallery
See the APOY 2014 Leader Board after this round.
